So if someone called you out of the blue claiming to be a loved one that you thought was dead would you immediately accept it as fact? Personally, I would be awfully skeptical and probably just assume it was someone playing a cruel joke. Especially if I was a high-profile athlete who people are always trying to mess with. Also, shortly after Te'o got that phone call HE told Notre Dame and started the investigation. Not exactly the actions of someone trying to cover it up.

So if someone called you out of the blue claiming to be a loved one that you thought was dead would you immediately accept it as fact? Personally, I would be awfully skeptical and probably just assume it was someone playing a cruel joke. Especially if I was a high-profile athlete who people are always trying to mess with. Also, shortly after Te'o got that phone call HE told Notre Dame and started the investigation. Not exactly the act of someone who was trying to cover it up.

Well....I wouldn't fall for a 3 year cover up...just sayin....
But seriously, something should have been smelling rotten from there out and he should have found the truth and maybe done his own research?

So if someone called you out of the blue claiming to be a loved one that you thought was dead would you immediately accept it as fact? Personally, I would be awfully skeptical and probably just assume it was someone playing a cruel joke. Especially if I was a high-profile athlete who people are always trying to mess with. Also, shortly after Te'o got that phone call HE told Notre Dame and started the investigation. Not exactly the actions of someone trying to cover it up.

That COMPLETE investigation was done before the NC game. They should have come out then. No excuses.

Notre Dame and Te'o covered it up because they didn't want Notre Dame getting ripped a new one before the NC game and it messing with the players.

Sorry, can't excuse him. And reportedly the person he talked to December 6th was his "dead girlfriend." You don't think he realized then and there it wasn't a hoax or something?

I think we can go ahead and take whatever his family says with a grain of salt, lol.

His uncle is selling the "multiple people spent thousands of dollars and man-hours over three years and gave up/killed her almost a year before Manti signs a deal for millions they could try to get their hands on" angle, which runs counter to what Manti himself claimed through Notre Dame. The uncle said he met a fake chick. Manti says he never met her...after he said he met her. Manti, his family, and his handlers can't keep the details about the story straight.

They really need to get that locked down before Manti stops running scared and has his interview.

I love how one of the radio guys asked the uncle whether he thought Manti could have been involved in the hoax. What a softball; gave him the perfect chance to talk up his character. There was only one possible answer his uncle would give.

So if someone called you out of the blue claiming to be a loved one that you thought was dead would you immediately accept it as fact? Personally, I would be awfully skeptical and probably just assume it was someone playing a cruel joke. Especially if I was a high-profile athlete who people are always trying to mess with. Also, shortly after Te'o got that phone call HE told Notre Dame and started the investigation. Not exactly the actions of someone trying to cover it up.

He didn't do anything "shortly."

He waited three weeks, according to his story.

...and it was from her telephone number. He himself claimed that he recognized it as her voice.

If I'm to believe this is a hoax, it has to be the most elaborate hoax in the history of the human species:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cigaro

Those quotes are what make it odd for me. He can perfectly recite what she supposedly went through, the stuff that would attract the headlines. When asked simply what did she study, he can't quickly recall when she even graduated(which doesn't even answer the question being asked), in addition to other things that would seem pretty simple answers if recalling from truthful events.

I'm not so sure. My family was briefly involved in a hoax in which someone was impersonating a family member over the phone out of the country. There were at least 3-6 perpetrators and it involved the supposed authorities and the "family member" was very convincing and emotional. They explained in great elaboration what had happened to them. I spoke briefly to them and can't say I was 100% sure it wasn't them. Of course money was needed for their aid. Although it was fairly obvious it was a hoax, it took more than an anxious minute to verify. But their story was detailed and elaborate. Depending on how sick the perpetrator is, and how hooked the victim gets, who knows what gets orchestrated.

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With all due respect, there can be no good timing for a statement, even if they air it during the Super Bowl. I think people are far more interested in this story than they are in the NFL Playoffs.

Yes, but on Sunday afternoon ESPN has to spend a lot of time talking about the NFL playoffs. On a Tuesday or Wednesday they could talk about this for twice as long. It'll still take up a ton of coverage throughout the week, but releasing it during other big sports news will at least limit it a little.

Here's my question. What's the big crime? Let us say that the absolute worst is true Te'o single handed created a very elaborate hoax and the media ate it up with a spoon. Media is butt hurt because they didn't bother to fact check the story. With the some of the character issues that other first/second round picks have this is ridiculously tame. At the end of it I'm rather happy. It was a hoax no young woman died of cancer horah!

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Here's my question. What's the big crime? Let us say that the absolute worst is true Te'o single handed created a very elaborate hoax and the media ate it up with a spoon. Media is butt hurt because they didn't bother to fact check the story. With the some of the character issues that other first/second round picks have this is ridiculously tame. At the end of it I'm rather happy. It was a hoax no young woman died of cancer horah!

Not a crime, but it still makes him a dirtbag and someone who is able to lie really easily...which makes you wonder "what else is this little prick lying about?" Half of his stock was based on him having high character, because his speed and tackling aren't putting him in the first round.

This would be a lot different if it were Jerramy Stevens coming out. His stock was all about ability. He wasn't getting any points at all for character.

It's not that Te'o committed an unforgivable crime and so we have to expunge him from our draft boards to show our moral outrage. Nor is this an indiscretion that raises real significant issues about his character in terms of getting in trouble off the field.

The problem is that this situation is completely unprecedented.

Te'o has been publicly humiliated on an unparalleled scale. No other draft prospect has ever faced something like this in the past, so NFL teams don't know how to handle it. If Te'o had robbed a convenience store, got arrested with cocaine, or got arrested for hitting his (real) girlfriend, those would be worse in terms of the morality of the action, but the difference is that NFL teams know how to deal with guys like that. We have an idea how those sorts of reprobates comport themselves in the NFL as we've had lots of examples in the past. We've had no examples of anything like this, ever.

So however you spin it, drafting Te'o now carries risk that it didn't before this story broke. We're not sure how he's going to react to this; he's played one game since [he found out he was duped/his web of lies unraveled] (pick your interpretation) and it was among the worst games he ever played (admittedly against a superior opponent). Is he going to lose his edge because he's a broken human being due to heartbreak and humiliation? How is he going to react to merciless mockery from fans, opposing players, and even teammates with whom he is competing for a roster spot. I mean, one of the biggest pluses about Te'o on the evaluation going into the draft was "leadership" but can he really lead people who think he's pathetic?

He's not a bad person, or a bad player, but I would never consider taking Te'o in the first two rounds after this because I don't like to take risks in the first two rounds, and taking Te'o is now a risk. It may turn out to be nothing, but guys who stole cars to make a living as kids sometimes turn into beloved 12 year vets who are squeaky clean off the field. The whole point is mitigating your risk.

If he knock the combine interview out of the park, then you feel better about that risk; if you leave the room still having questions, then you might feel worse about it. But the thing we can say now is that the risk exists, and it's something you have to take into account from a front office perspective.

So if someone called you out of the blue claiming to be a loved one that you thought was dead would you immediately accept it as fact? Personally, I would be awfully skeptical and probably just assume it was someone playing a cruel joke. Especially if I was a high-profile athlete who people are always trying to mess with. Also, shortly after Te'o got that phone call HE told Notre Dame and started the investigation. Not exactly the actions of someone trying to cover it up.

Whether he was duped or in on it, I couldn't care less, but find the whole situation hilarious.

That said, I'm sorry but this is a terrible argument. You claim someone is the love of your life, and her "death" has obviously affected not only your football performance but your life as a whole. You give numerous interviews and make numerous statements about what she meant to you and how tough it's been since she's passed. You make reference to the fact that you know her sister and possibly that her brother informed you of her death. Assuming you have been dating for 3 years, while it's probably stupid to assume in this case, you would think he would either have met someone from her family or someone that knew her, or at least be aware that she has family and friends out there.

Given all that, you receive a phone call, out of the blue, from her phone number and from someone sounding like her, claiming to be her, stating that she is, in fact, alive. You don't immediately call her sister/brother/parents/friends/ANYONE that you know to be associated with her? Your first thought is "Hm, I better tell my coach and school so they can investigate for me."

Maybe Te'o really is a gullible nice guy that can't tie his shoes without someone telling him how to and trusts everyone in the world, and he really thought the right thing to do is not follow up at all with anyone other than tell his school and that's it. If that's the case, Te'o might be the dumbest person alive and obviously didn't care that much about her all that much if he wasn't outraged when she called him out of the blue.

Scott, you're great at analyzing talent, but your logic in a lot of your posts is really beyond reasonable for the average person. No normal human being would just accept that they are being hoaxed, just tell your school to investigate, and then keep playing up society when you knew something was wrong.

And just to add, I don't think Te'o was involved or knew from the start that this was all made up. But I do think it's incredibly weird and that he might be a borderline ruhtard for believing it all, and I do think he found out about it and kept up the lie because either he was embarrassed or didn't want to hurt his image.

This will probably affect his draft stock slightly, even though I don't really think it should. He should have been a late 1st round guy in the first place, the hype from this season had people talking top 10, and this will probably make him slide back to the late first round, so really no harm done.

Not sure this question has been asked, but would you guys take him on your team? I'd be a hypocrite if I said no, but this all screams shady to me.

I absolutely would on the Bears. This stuff is crazy, but worst case scenario is he made it all up himself to promote his image. There have been many less talented players do worse and still succeed in the NFL.

This should definetly affect his draft stock. If he is dumb enough to fall for something like this just wait till he has millions and see what kind of scam artists and gold digging women that would gravitate toward him.

If you read the interview and believe he was "fooled", I don't think there's hope for you.

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SI: You would literally sleep with your phone on with her on it?

TE'O: With her on it.

SI: When you woke up?

TE'O: She's be on it.

SI: What would the phone say?

TE'O: Like eight hours. Lucky she had AT&T so it was all free or my family would kill me.

SI: When did you start talking to her all night?

TE'O: When she got in her accident?

SI: So starting in April?

TE'O: Yeah and you know, she was in a coma. I would try, and you know.

SI: Hit by a drunk driver. What were her injuries?

TE'O: I don't know. She had a lot of different injuries.

SI: How long was she hospitalized?

TE'O: She was in that hospital for about two months.

SI: Wow, did she get out?

TE'O: She didn't get out. She went from there. Remember she got in the accident and she was in a coma. We lost her, actually, twice. She flatlined twice. They revived her twice. It was just a trippy situation. It was a day I was flying home from South Bend to go home for summer break. It was May. Mid-May. That was the day where they said, "Bro, we're going to pull it. We're going to pull the plug." I remember having this feeling like everything is going to be OK. They were telling me, "Say your goodbyes." From April 28 to around mid-May, I was always talking to my girlfriend who was on a machine.

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So his girlfriend had "I don't know, lots of different injuries". And he was "flying home" and her brother called him "say your goodbyes, we're going to pull the plug". Gee, why wasn't he visiting her if he was flying home for spring break? This is the love of his life? He now says he never met her in person.

If he was "fooled", then he's still compulsive liar. She wasn't "the love of his life", not "the most beautiful girl I've ever met" (he never met her in person, he saw one picture of her). And he hadn't "known her for 4 years", they met on twitter less than a year ago.

If the love of your life is dying (they were about to "pull the plug"), you would actually, I don't know VISIT HER IN THE HOSPITAL??? HELLO????

This dude created this whole drama because he loves attention, possibly hoping for Heismann hype. Imagine being on a team with an attention seeking drama queen like this. The whole interview he talks about the team like the only reason they exist is to provide him emotional support. It's all about Teo and his dying girlfriend, the love of his life. Like it's the move "Love Story". It's ludicrous. He never met her in person. He's not stupid or "gullible" to think this chick is his girlfriend. He has dozens of women throwing panties at him at Notre Dame, he knows what's up.

So this guy who set up the fake girl (who is his friend Tuiasasopo) also conspired with females (or does a good female impersonation) to stay up EVERY DAY with Teo? Speaking 8 hours a night sometimes? Where is this girl? Just a really good conspirator? She sure can keep a secret! Amazing amount of work this devilish "crew" (the leader of which is Teo's good buddy) put in. For what purpose?

Poor Teo! Poor poor Teo! Just a trusting soul is he.

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